“Droughts have Different Tails”: Response to Crises in Mukogodo Division, North Central Kenya, 1950s‐1980s

Abstract

In this essay I discuss the response to crises of Maasai speaking pastoralists in Mukogodo Division, North Central Kenya. I begin with the reminder that the Maasai term currently translated as "drought", olamei, refers primarily to any situation of want of which meteorological drought is only one possible cause. It is therefore preferable to speak of crises, rather than of "droughts". 1 then review the crises which have affected Mukogodo pastoralism since the turn of the century in a wider socioeconomic and political perspective. I then show how the crises of 1981 and 1984 have led to a process of stratification, which locks the poorer half of the population into an unviable and residual "labour reserve pastoralism" with declining chances of recovery.